For some reason the term ‘wardrobe malfunction’ has come to be used in reference to those little ‘accidents’ that happen to people when their clothing slips to reveal a little more than is conventional. For some peculiar reason this seems to happen more frequently with famous people and even more frequently when cameras are rolling.
However that’s not the reason I’m writing this. Who first coined the phrase ‘wardrobe malfunction’ in reference to incidents of this kind ? Said person needs to be gently informed that a more correct phrase would be ‘clothing malfunction’ seeing as it is the clothes that are causing the problem.
A wardrobe malfunction relates to those tall cupboards that store clothes. A malfunction of one could be one of the following :-
Whilst opening the door, you trip and fall into the wardrobe and get tangled up in the clothes and have to call for your partner to help you get released. Who is out in the garden at the time and doesn’t hear your calls until they come in a few hours later.
Or you pull open the door and the door falls off, lands on your foot to cause you to jump about in pain and to fall backwards down the stairs.
Of course there are those who will say that one of the meanings of “wardrobe” is clothes themselves. Maybe so, but that refers to a collection of clothes. You do not wear a collection unless you want to get hot and sweaty to the point of unconsciousness.